1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods, combinations, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture involving feature extraction in beauty analysis. The invention may be particularly beneficial for extracting from images and isolating for analysis skin, hair, and nail conditions such as wrinkles, freckles, split-ends, nail discoloration and other conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
Beauty treatments, and particularly treatments of the facial skin, are often aimed at improving a particular skin condition. For example, a subject with a condition such as wrinkles may seek a treatment focused on wrinkle reduction while a subject with a condition such as freckles may seek a treatment specifically tailored to reducing the frequency and intensity of freckles. In both instances, it may be beneficial to quantify the extent of the adverse conditions at the beginning of the treatment and at various stages during the treatment in order to gauge treatment effectiveness and/or to help the subject better appreciate the extent of the adverse condition. Further, quantification of conditions is often helpful in determining an appropriate treatment regimen.